The Jitterbug
by riah alice drake
Summary: Ruby should know by now that nothing in Oz it what it seems to be. Especially when she thinks a buzzing sound filling her ears and annoying the hell out of her wolf and Toto's sensitive hearing is nothing more than white noise. Inspired by the deleted song from the Wizard of Oz "The Jitterbug"


It wasn't until she noticed that Ruby was spending more of their walk ring a finger in her ears like when she gets water in them after showering or swimming with an annoyed grunt and Toto was softly growling with every other step he took also trying to shake out some kind of annoying sound from his ears as he trotted along beside that she finally noticed something was wrong.

"What's up with you two?" she wondered teasingly as her arm draped across her wolf's shoulders.

Red pouted sadly nuzzling her face against the warrior's neck with a sulking "How can you not hear that?" whispered against her skin as they stopped in the middle of the tree-lined road to talk.

"Hear what Wolfie?" Dorothy prompted "That white noise buzzing hum thing." Ruby answered grouchily still trying to ring the sound from her ears. "It's not going away and it's driving us crazy." She whimpered crouching down to pull a softly yipping Toto into her arms her fingers already twisting and stroking his scruff in sympathy.

Dorothy was about to ask another question but that stopped just shy of reaching her throat when her ears picked up the dull thrumming sound her sensitive eared companions must have been hearing. Her eyes widened when she realized just what the noise was. "We need to move." The warrior ordered already pulling her crossbow from her belt as her eye scanned around the darkening trees behind them hunting for her target. "Don't ask just run." She commanded when Red opened her mouth to ask for more information.

The buzzing sound filling their ears only grew louder and all the harder to ignore as they raced down the golden bricked pathway.

"Hit the deck," Dorothy called out from behind them as soon as the shadows ahead of them started to move toward them. Ruby dropped to the ground obediently narrowly avoiding breaking a leg tripping over an uprooted tree root as her arms closed in around Toto hugging the whimpering terrier protectively against her chest as the hastily aimed crossbow bolt streaked over their heads into the tree line.

Ruby let out a low grunt of surprise when Dorothy's weight dropped over her just as the buzzing sound was replaced by a high-pitched wheezing of what could have been pain and quickly followed by a crashing skidding thud.

"Stay here." The Oz girl whispered in her ear earnestly and a little out of breath over the sound of feebly twitching wings from the fallen thing that had been chasing them. "I'm serious just stay down Red please." She added noticing that Ruby's defiant eyes met hers over her shoulder when Dorothy moved to get up only to be pulled down again by her companion's free hand.

"I have to be sure its dead Wolfie," Dorothy told her in a low whisper when the wolf still didn't let go of her wrist, yet her eyes never leave the still twitching body in the growing darkness. "I have better eyesight at the moment." The waitress argued gesturing with her free hand to the surrounding shadows following the Oz Champion to her feet already holding out the tense muscled dog toward his owner in trade.

"No way," Dorothy answered pulling away from her reaching hands as she finished reloading another arrow in her crossbow. "We're wasting time arguing about this," she pointed out only to have her words be followed by another fluttering of large wigs.

"Exactly why I should be taking the shot instead of fighting with you Kansas." Ruby agreed pushing Toto into Dorothy's arms and spinning her loaded weapon out of her hands in one smooth motion. Dorothy hesitated a half second longer her teeth digging into her lower lip in indecisions "Light the arrowhead on fire just before you shoot, aim for the very center of its forehead, no matter what you see shot it and kill it completely, and for the love of all Oz don't let it touch you even after its dead." The country girl relented handing over a matchbook with a defeated exhaled breath.

"It will be on fire babe so of course, I won't let it touch me." Ruby grinned overjoyed at the show of trust.

"Just be careful." Dorothy insisted her eyes followed Ruby's every move as the wolf woman cautiously crept up on the downed animal that had brought out such a terrified state from her generally level-headed, and emotion buried true love.

If she wasn't still hearing the muffled beat of fluttering wings as well as Dorothy's warning in her mind Ruby would swear she was walking up to a fatally wounded wolf.

Hang on not just a wolf.

It was Her wolf.

The thing on the ground it…it was her.

She was about to coldly murder herself.

Wait No…

It wasn't her wolf... It was…

But no.

It couldn't be the terrier he was safely back with Dorothy and besides the thing she was looking at now was almost four times as big as the little guy even fully grown and since when did Toto ever have wings?

"Just kill it, baby." Dorothy bagged from somewhere behind her.

The werewolf's trembling fingers struck the match to ignite the end of the arrow, but the light only made the bleeding body on the ground worse to her sharpened eyes.

"Ruby!?"

Part of her still knew this wasn't real but even that couldn't take away from the whimpering form curled up into his little self just steps from where she stood.

She gasped in panic when she felt a hand close over hers pointing out the shaking weapon in her grip as another match was rather clumsily light before the bolt was sent speeding, so it embedded itself deeply into the thing skull igniting the dog in a hot flash of burning flames.

The battle-hardened warrior ended up half pulled half dragged the shaking werewolf away from the burning thing "That's what they do Wolfie but it's not real. None of it it's all them messing with your mind." she explained whistling for the real Toto to follow them as she kept both her arms locked around Ruby's waist keeping Red's arms trapped against her side not letting her go no matter how hard she tried to fight the other woman off.

"It didn't touch you did it?" Dorothy asked looking at the shaking woman in her arms over once they were safely locked away in their deep forest cottage.

"Fine." Red promised not really hearing the question "What was that…that…" she stammered her fingers digging into the skin of Dorothy's arms as the memories replayed behind her closed eyes.

"Jitterbug," Dorothy supplied

"But the fires.…" Red reminded her a new hint of panic in her tone.

Dorothy shook her head "I've already sent a message to Glenda and the other members of the coven when we were back in the woods. Everything will be taken care of." She promised leaning back against her wolf's hold when she felt Ruby molding herself against her back both of them needing the closeness. "I thought they had gone extinct from the last time I fought them." The shaken hero whispered already setting the water for tea on to boil.

"I like them better when it was just the name for some out of style dance moves," Ruby admitted her voice cracking at the confession. Dorothy's weak chuckle calmed her nerves just a little "It would have been worse if they had touched you." She supplied "according to the coven once it's latched onto its victim the person's body will go into convolutions so violent that the body literally vibrates apart…."

"And it uses something the person loves against them by making it look hurt, so the victim goes to try and help?" Red guessed pressing her face into the crook of her hero's neck as they sunk down onto the sofa to cuddle together until the tea was ready. Dorothy nodded letting her hand smooth down her human wolf's hair to soothe her feeling Toto's head resting against her ankle as the terrier curled up in the space between her and Ruby's tangled legs.

"Like some creepy Doberman sized Ozein Dementors." Ruby shuddered snuggling even closer into Dorothy's comforting arms.

"Demon whats?" Dorothy questioned puzzled

Red shook her head pressing her lips against her lover's jaw "It's from a book series I read back during the curse." She explained "Magic and werewolves and a wrongfully convicted man turning into a giant dog." She rambled "But instead of taking souls those things take away a person's sanity then their life." She summarized to herself.

"That's Oz for you," Dorothy sighed as her hands absently massaged the human wolf's scalp pressing her deeper into the sofa cushions.

"You don't have any R.O. Ss here do you?"

"Rodents of Unusual Size?" Dorothy questioned tilting her chin down to look at her companion only to be met with an amazed gaping expression "Babe we have flying monkeys, talking trees, and you running around the woods here. I think giant rats are the least of our problems." The country girl laughed leaning down to press her lips against Ruby's forehead.

"Just for that you make your own tea," Red pouted untangling herself from Dorothy's hold before the kettle had even started whistling from the kitchen.


End file.
